Hanok Roof (Giwa and Choga)

The hanok is the traditional Korean house, and its roof is its most recognisable feature. Two main types are distinguished by covering: the giwa-jip, roofed with fired clay tiles, and the choga-jip, roofed with rice-straw thatch. In everyday usage "hanok" most often refers to the tiled house.

Giwa (tile) roofs

Fired-clay roof tiles were used in Korea from the Iron Age and give the hanok its typical silhouette: a heavy, gently curving roof whose eaves turn upward at the corners. The curve and depth of the eaves (cheoma) are carefully judged. A longer cheoma blocks the high summer sun while letting the lower winter sun reach into the rooms. Tiled roofs were built for upper- and middle-class households and gave equal weight to function and appearance.

The tiled roof is carried on a timber post-and-beam frame.

Choga (thatch) roofs

Houses of provincial commoners, and of some impoverished aristocrats, were roofed with rice straw. These buildings were built more strictly for function. Straw was a by-product of the rice harvest, so the roof could be renewed with locally available material.

Climate and planning

Korea has hot, humid summers and cold, dry winters. The hanok combines raised wooden floors for summer with ondol underfloor heating, already present in Iron Age houses, for winter. House plans vary with climate: southern houses tend to be open and in a single line, central houses L-shaped, and northern houses closed squares to block wind.

Heritage districts

Bukchon Hanok Village in Jongno District, Seoul, preserves many tile-roofed houses from the late 19th and early 20th centuries; it was designated a folk landscape area in 1976 and a conservation zone in 1983. Jeonju Hanok Village in North Jeolla contains more than 800 hanok.

Today

New hanok continue to be built, and preserved districts keep the giwa roofscape visible in Korean cities. Thatched choga are now seen mainly in folk villages and heritage settings.